Menendez brothers will seek pardon from California Governor Gavin Newsom

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Erik and Lyle Menendez’s attorney, Mark Geragos, will seek clemency from Gov. Gavin Newsom in hopes of having the brothers released by Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, ABC News reported that paperwork for the pardon request had been filed.

“Pending amnesty applications are confidential and we cannot discuss individual cases,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “More information about the process can be found here“

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, who has already backed the brothers’ resentment, will also support the clemency request, according to ABC News. He expected to submit a letter to that effect by the end of Wednesday.

The Menendez brothers are currently serving life sentences without parole for the grisly murders of their parents, who were shot to death in 1989.

Their lawyers’ latest offer means there are now three separate legal scenarios in which the brothers could win their freedom from prison. There is now leniency and resentment supported by Gascón and, separately, a habeas corpus bid by his legal team to reduce the original conviction to manslaughter based on new evidence that they were physically and sexually assaulted by their parents.

Newsom’s clemency would change the brothers’ individual sentences but not their murder convictions.

Last week, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommended resentencing the Menendez brothers after new evidence prompted a reexamination of the case. But Gascón appeared to support the murder convictions, saying there was no doubt they were responsible for their parents’ deaths.

In an interview with ABC News, the prosecutor was asked what he said to people in his office who said two young men clearly planned the murders in advance.

“We’re not letting them go,” Gascón replied. “First of all, I made it very clear: These were brutal murders, they were pre-planned, and that’s why they got life without the possibility of parole.”

The case has now been moved to the Van Nuys courthouse, where the double murder case is being heard. Each brother’s trial ended in a hung jury.

The Menendez brothers never denied killing their parents, but insisted they acted in self-defense after fearing for their lives and claiming they had been sexually abused by their father for years.

If a judge agrees to resentencing, the case will still need approval from the Parole and Newsom Board; This is a process that may take a year. However, these people can be released immediately if the judge recommends that their murder convictions be reduced to voluntary manslaughter.